👉🏾👉🏾👉🏾The #Feast of the #Crucifixion of Our Lord Jesus Christ (Tikimt 27)
Dear followers of the Orthodox faith, we greet you with the peace and grace of God. Today, we share with you an important lesson on the Crucifixion of Our Lord Jesus Christ (Tikimt 27), May you read it with understanding and apply it with humility in your lives.
✍🏾The Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church, in keeping with the apostolic order and the teaching handed down by the Fathers, observes a special commemoration of the Crucifixion of Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ on Tikimt 27 .This arrangement was established by the Church Fathers following the ancient system of Demetrius, so that the sanctity and solemnity of the Resurrection might remain pure and undefiled.
✍🏾The Reason for Moving the Commemoration
The actual date of the Crucifixion falls on Megabit 27. However, since this date always occurs during the Great Lent (Abiy Tsom) a season of sorrow, repentance, and fasting the Church does not permit any feast of joy to be celebrated during this time.
Therefore, the Fathers decreed that the feast of the Crucifixion be commemorated with reverence and spiritual joy on Tikimt 27, a time when the faithful can honor the event properly and give thanks for the salvation accomplished on the Cross.
✍🏾The Spiritual Meaning of Tikimt 27
On this blessed day, the Church praises Christ who redeemed the world by His Cross, saying:
“By His Cross and by His Word, He has exalted our fathers.”
The faithful sing hymns and proclaim that the Cross is the sign of victory through which light shone for the righteous. Because Tikimt falls during the month of Tsige, the season of flowers, the Church testifies in song that “the Lord, the glory of the saints and the Savior of the righteous, has adorned the earth with beauty.”
The faithful rejoice, saying,
“You can cleanse me, O Lord, for by Your word You cleanse the lepers,”
remembering the light that shines for all through the Cross.
✍🏾The Prophetic Symbol – The Bronze Serpent
When Christ spoke of His crucifixion, He referred to the bronze serpent that Moses lifted up in the wilderness:
“As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up.”
(John 3:14)
In the time of Moses, the people sinned against God and were punished with fiery serpents. When they repented, God commanded Moses:
“Make a fiery serpent and set it on a pole, and everyone who is bitten, when he sees it, shall live.”
(Numbers 21:8–9)
This was a divine foreshadowing of Christ’s crucifixion.
✍🏾The Bronze Serpent: A Symbol of the Cross
When the Lord of Hosts sent manna from heaven and brought forth water from the rock to feed Israel, He showed His mercy and power before His people. The Lord said, “I have fed you with manna.” Yet even after witnessing these great wonders, Israel doubted the Lord and spoke against Him. God would not have given them a table in a monastery or a cave, but rather in the wilderness, to reveal His greatness and to expose their unbelief.
The Lord commanded Moses to go down into the desert where there was no water. There, He caused manna to descend from heaven and water to flow from the rock for His people. But afterward, a serpent named Nefertari began to bite them, and many among Israel died.
Then the people came to Moses and confessed, saying,
“The mercy and kindness of the Lord do not depart, even when man errs. We have sinned against the Lord and against you. Pray to the Lord that He may take the serpents away from us.”
Moses prayed for the people, and the Lord commanded him, saying,
“Make for yourself a fiery serpent, and set it upon a pole in the midst of the assembly. Whoever is bitten and looks upon it shall live.”
So Moses made a bronze serpent and lifted it up on a pole, and everyone who was bitten by the serpent was healed when he looked upon the bronze serpent (Numbers 21:4–9).
Continues 👇🏾